[CentOS] Linux Trademarked?

[Johnny Hughes]

On Fri, 2005-08-19 at 12:55 -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-08-19 at 12:43, Johnny Hughes wrote:
> 
> > > Can you give proper copyright credit on the Linux kernel without the
> > > name Linux?  A quick grep through the source tree shows the word is
> > > used thousands of times.  If there are restrictions on the usage, how
> > > do you reconcile that with the GPL requirement that prohibits
> > > additional restrictions?
> > > 
> > 
> > Yes ... that is a linux kernel
> > 
> > You can't use "Linux" in the name of your company or the name of your
> > product without permission.
> 
> So how do you describe your product, giving proper credit without
> infringing?  Have you cleared everything up with RedHat after getting
> the same kind of letter from them.

Yes we have.

> And if so, are you sure you wouldn't
> be sued out of existence anyway if it were some company other than
> RedHat under the same circumstances?

They have trademark guidelines, which we are following.  If it were
another company with other guidelines, we would follow those too.

We have contacted them (the upstream provider) about several other
issues, like how they would like us to word the way we distribute their
"Open Publication License" documentation so that they receive credit for
their work and there is no misunderstanding by either of our users that
CentOS is not a Red Hat product.

This should explain everything fairly well:
http://www.centos.org/modules/smartfaq/faq.php?faqid=13



> 
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